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15 Sge is a star very much like our sun that is located 57.7 light
years away. The star is much larger than the object orbiting it, but
looks small in this view because it is farther away. Orbiting far from the star is a companion about 65 times the mass of Jupiter. It is a brown dwarf, more massive than a planet, but too small to produce energy by nuclear fusion as a star does. It is glowing with its own heat. This image must be credited to "Gemini Observatory". |
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The Gemini North Telescope using the University of Hawaii's Hokupa'a
adaptive optics system found a very faint companion orbiting around 15
Sge (left). The same Gemini data have been processed to show the
brown dwarf companion more clearly (right). The brown dwarf lies only
0.8 arc seconds from the primary. (The fainter ripples are artifacts
of the image processing.) The brown dwarf is located at about the 7:00
position on these images. Gemini-North adaptive optics image of 15 Sge and its newly found companion (15 Sge B). The data was obtained in the near-infrared, at a wavelength of 2.2 microns. The image has been computer processed to subtract the light from the much brighter primary star in the vicinity of the companion. This image must be credited to "Gemini Observatory/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/Michael Liu/NSF". |
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This image is a merger of the two images above that highlights the
brown dwarf image around Sge 15 that was revealed for the first time
by Gemini. This image must be credited to "Gemini Observatory/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/Michael Liu/NSF". |
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Keck adaptive optics image of 15 Sge and its companion, also obtained
in the near-infrared. The arrow points to the companion, seen as a
close point source. (The streaks of light around the primary star are
image artifacts produced by the telescope.) Orientation and size are
the same as the above Gemini image. This image must be credited to "W. M. Keck Observatory/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/Michael Liu". |
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15 Sge is a star located in Sagitta ("The Arrow"), a small
constellation in the Summer Triangle. 15 Sge is barely visible to the
naked eye on a clear night far from city lights. This image must be credited to "Gemini Observatory". |
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The brown dwarf, which astronomers named 15 Sge B, orbits its star at
a distance of 14 A.U., or about 1.5 times Saturn's distance from the
Sun. This image must be credited to "Gemini Observatory". |
Artwork by Jon Lomberg. Photo Credit: "Gemini Observatory".